The UN Conference on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is taking place in New York. Top news of the day | Tuesday: Gaza, disability rights, Yemen, children UN
The main news of the day in the UN and the world: conference on Gaza in Jordan, forum on the rights of people with disabilities, detention of UN staff in Yemen, physical punishment of children.
Gaza Conference
The nightmare in Gaza must end. The time has come for a ceasefire and the unconditional release of the hostages. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres spoke these words at an international conference in Jordan to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the Gaza Strip. He recalled that 75 percent of Gaza’s population was forced to leave their homes, many more than once. The sector’s hospitals are in ruins. More than a million Palestinians lack drinking water and food. More than 50,000 children require treatment for acute malnutrition. The UN chief welcomed the peace initiative recently outlined by US President Joe Biden and called on all parties to “seize this opportunity.”
Rebuilding Kharkov
Representatives of governments, international, regional and local organizations gathered in Berlin for the Conference on the Reconstruction of Ukraine. During participation in the forum, the UN Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) and partners are holding high-level negotiations to reaffirm commitments to support Kharkiv. Ukraine’s second most populous city, located just thirty kilometers from the Russian border, has been severely damaged by the war. According to the mayor of the city, Igor Terekhov, 150 thousand Kharkov residents today do not have housing. Since the beginning of the war, about nine thousand residential buildings, 110 kindergartens and 130 schools, all thermal power plants and transformer substations, 88 medical institutions and 185 social buildings have been destroyed.
Rights of the disabled & ;nbsp;
The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, adopted 18 years ago, has been ratified by 191 states. Much has been accomplished over the past years, but this work is still far from complete. This was stated by the First Deputy Secretary General of the UN Amina Mohammed, speaking on Tuesday at the 17th Conference of States Parties to the Convention. This year, the issue of technological innovation is included in the agenda. According to Amina Mohammed, 2.5 billion people in the world need some kind of assistive technology, yet access to such devices in low-income countries is only three percent. In addition, about 80 percent of innovations in such technologies are developed in just three countries – China, Japan and the United States.
International Day of Gaming >
Nearly 400 million children under age 5, or 60 percent of all children in this age group, regularly experience psychological abuse or physical punishment at home. This is reported by the authors of a new study by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). They note the important role of care and play in a child’s development and mental health. The publication of the report is timed to coincide with International Game Day, which is celebrated for the first time this year. “When children experience physical or verbal abuse at home, or when they are deprived of social and emotional care from loved ones, it can undermine their sense of self-worth and hinder their development,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell. According to her, when a child is cared for and played with, parenting brings joy, helps children feel safe, learn, develop skills and navigate the world around them.